Project Activities
The research team will pilot and conduct two studies within ASSISTments to test the impact of using perceptual scaffolding to support learning two mathematics concepts: equivalence and inversion. These studies address whether the presence of perceptual cues, as an intervention feature, supports learning above and beyond a control condition.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The project will take place in public elementary schools in an urban district in Indiana.
Sample
Each intervention will include approximately 700 learners in grades 2 through 4 in general education classes across 129 teachers.
The research team will develop two online instructional activities for foundational elementary mathematics skills—one on equivalence and one on inverse operators— that leverage perceptual scaffolding as an intervention feature. Grouping cues and color will be used as perceptual scaffolds.
Research design and methods
The researchers will conduct two studies concurrently designed and deployed in ASSISTments to respectively test the effects of perceptual scaffolding in the context of (a) equivalence and (b) inverse operations content. The studies will both use a between-subjects design with learner-level randomization within ASSISTments that holds learners within condition across three problem sets (a pretest, intervention, and posttest). The research team will test for the effects of perceptual scaffolding on learners' mathematics performance and learning as well as examine potential moderators.
Control condition
Learners in the control conditions will receive the same content (i.e., worked examples and practice problems) without any perceptual scaffolding.
Key measures
The key measures are from the learner log data in ASSISTments, including learners' performance (i.e., accuracy and average response time) on the intervention problem set and learning (i.e., posttest score). The research team will collect learners' calculation skills and pretest scores. The team will also note learners' teacher and grade level. The project team will also check for differences in fidelity (i.e., completion) by condition in the preliminary analyses.
Data analytic strategy
The researchers will examine the effects of perceptual scaffolding on performance and learning, as well as potential moderators using analyses of variance, controlling for learners' teacher, grade level, and prior knowledge.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Products include evidence on the effects of perceptual scaffolding on learners' mathematics outcomes in digital learning platforms and preliminary evidence on whether and how to implement perceptual scaffolding in online activities for elementary mathematics. Products will also include publications in interdisciplinary journals and presentations at international conferences. The materials, analyses, output, and de-identified data will be shared publicly on the Open Science Framework. Third, based on the results, evidence-based recommendations will be shared through online dissemination and professional development sessions for researchers, teachers, and content developers who wish to implement or adapt the materials to use in ASSISTments, other digital learning platforms, or their classroom.
Additional project information
This project is part of the Digital Learning Platforms to Enable Efficient Education Research Network (Digital Learning Platforms Network), which aims to leverage existing, widely used digital learning platforms for rigorous education research.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
